Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (August 2024)

This post summarizes published criminal law and related cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during August of 2024. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available here. Door opening in response to knocking did not constitute implied consent to enter without a warrant; decedent’s act of pointing a rifle at officer justified use of deadly force, but the circumstances of the shooting of the decedent’s girlfriend were unclear; dismissal of warrantless entry claims reversed; dismissal of excessive force claims reversed in part Quinn v. Zerkle, 111 F.4th 281 (Aug. 1, 2024). Early one morning, the decedent was involved in a high-speed chase with a West Virginia State Trooper. The decedent managed to make it home, where his girlfriend was inside sleeping. The trooper arrived within minutes and was soon joined by local county deputies. They surrounded the home and knocked on the front door without receiving an answer. After loudly announcing their presence several times while continuing to knock and threatening to release a K-9 inside, the door swung open. The deputies went inside the home. In response, the decedent broke his bedroom window and jumped outside onto the ground while holding an AR-15 rifle. He pointed it at a nearby deputy and was immediately shot and killed by that deputy and the trooper. His girlfriend—who followed him out of the window—was also shot at or near the same time. The girlfriend and the man’s estate sued in [...]